Related Content

The Senate voted 29-18 to override the governor's veto but not before spirited and respectful debate.

"We are in the process of trying to re-assimilate and re-integrate people who have essentially been made exiles in the state of Maryland," said Sen. Jamie Raskin, D-Montgomery County.

"I look at this bill and I look at two words: law and rights. Somebody breaks the law, they lose rights," said Sen. Johnny Ray Salling, R-Baltimore County.

The governor vetoed the bill last spring, saying he doesn't believe felons should have the right to vote until their entire sentence is complete.

"Let me say my motivation for the bill was the fact that 72 to 76 percent of those in prison are ethnic minorities," said Sen. Joan Carter Conway, D-Baltimore City.

Sen. Joanne Benson, D-Prince George's County, said she got out of her sick bed to vote and counter stereotypes of felons.

"Some of them have master degrees, have Ph.D.s. They are husbands, they are family members and they do not have the opportunity to vote," Benson said.

Sen. Craig Zucker, D-Montgomery County, cast the deciding vote and provided some drama to the process because he got to vote twice, once as a House member, then as a new senator. The Montgomery County Central Committee recommended Zucker and the governor officially appointed him to a vacant Senate seat. The state attorney general issued an opinion declaring there's no legal reason he can't vote as a delegate and now as a senator.

"(It's) very constitutional. There's no uncertainty in terms of it not being able to be done," Senate President Mike Miller said.

Republican leaders seized on wording that left the door open to interpretation.

"They muddy the waters when they get into a couple of court cases saying that the Legislature needs to be distinct and that the two bodies can't overlap. The fact that one member who voted on the bill now is voting in the second body, I think it's wrong," Senate Minority Leader J.B. Jennings said.

State Republican Party officials said, at the very least, Zucker could have recused himself.